Xbox One Smart Match

Earlier today I chatted with Chad Gibson, Principle Group Program manager for Xbox Live Gaming features and Mike Lavin, Sr. Global Product Marketing manager for Xbox Live on our live E3 broadcast. They outlined how the new Smart Match feature works on Xbox Live. Last week, before E3, I had a long conversation with Micheal Dunn from our team who leads the development on the new Smart Match system. I asked him to sum up what his team is putting together for all of us

Asynchronous Matchmaking

I’m Micheal Dunn, Program Manager on Xbox Live Services. I love how console games and especially co-op games bring people together to “spend quality time.” It’s great to play with friends and family online, but it’s fun sometimes to try a new “bar” so to speak and meet new people to play with online. I’ve met people from all over the world while playing on Xbox Live.

We all have better things to do than wait for people to show up to play a game. It would be great if I could start up the flight sim game, see if anyone is online to play, put in my play request and then switch to something else while I wait for people to show up. That is what Smart Match on Xbox One allows people to do. It makes it easy for a title to create a match request and then “untether” me so I don’t need wait in the title while the match search is processing. I can switch to reading a quick social blog or watch a viral video and when the match is ready Xbox One tells me to pull me back into the title to play.

The new Smart Match service allows titles to change their match model from traditional peer-based host searching for players typical in Xbox 360 to now completely untethered cloud-based. The example I gave was for a low population title like a flight sim game, but there are also great results for the more popular shooter and sports titles too.

You will be able to launch a popular shooter or sports title and see the “typical wait time” for different online game modes. For example, imagine a match area for a quick match] that might have a wait time of 1 minute, and then another match area in the title for “match by downloadable content (DLC)” with typical wait time of 7 minutes. Chances are you’d never wait in a game for 7 minutes to play online, you’d just make do with “quick match” and lowest common denominator DLC. With Xbox One titles, you can instead pick the longer “match by DLC” option if you please, see it might take 7 minutes to find a match that night, and switch to another task while Smart Match in the cloud is searching for you. You end up with a much more enjoyable match result since you get to play with people with similar DLC versus just the lowest common denominator levels in the base title. You get to make the most use the latest map or car you just bought to keep the game play fresh and interesting, versus just going into quick match with the same options every night.

With Beacons in Xbox 360 you could set a toast to tell other friends of your desire to play a specific game online. Smart Match on Xbox One goes way beyond that to help you tap into the full player population for a title, versus just the friends you know, and means you skip waiting in a match search screen in the title. This is a true departure from consoles that don’t have a way to switch between tasks quickly. Plus over time Smart Match empowers Xbox One titles to unlock many more ways to play online without the penalty of segmenting the available pool of people each night to match with. This same pattern depending on the title can include player attributes to search for such as very specific skill or social elements like spoken language or even people of similar age. You will see lots of new play styles open up for online play as titles start to experiment more with match types, without you needing to be stuck waiting for players to show up.

With Xbox One, I’m looking forward to putting in my match request in for a super special online play style or specific DLC needed for a play mode, then kicking back and letting Xbox Live do the work to find me a good person to play with while I practice my mad skills. Here’s an example of playing Ryse and then getting a match ready toast to jump into Killer Instinct online play that was shown in Monday’s E3 presentation.

Reputation You can usually tell a family member to stop crunching on corn chips in your ear or yakking on the cell phone while they play with you. With a stranger you meet online it doesn’t always turn out that way though. Sometimes you meet someone online that decides it’s cool to hum Top 40 songs as they go through a match or sometimes meet someone that can’t seem to avoid swearing at everything that #$%^ happens to them. The majority of Xbox Live players are polite online and know how to socially adjust to the people they are playing with, but there are some bad apples you run into that just seem to like to cause trouble. With Xbox One we’ve built a new social reputation model to help expose people that aren’t fun to be around, and also create real consequences for those few bad apples that continue to harass our good players.

Sometimes it’s hard for strangers to know what “polite” means with different social norms and backgrounds, and even harder when you aren’t in the same room face to face with someone. You have few social cues to rely on, and typically a stranger sees no real reason to listen to your complaint about their behavior. We all care a lot about behavior on Xbox Live and player feedback options in Xbox One allows you to help educate those who don’t seem to follow good social gaming norms. We simplified the feedback mechanism also to be less of a “survey” and more direct feedback options, even linking things in like block or mute player actions into the feedback model.

All of the feedback from player’s online flow into the reputation service to evaluate a players online social reputation. The more hours you play online without causing others to have a horrible time the better your reputation will be, similar to the more hours your drive without an accident the better your driving record and insurance rates will be. Most players will have good reputations and be seen as “green” good players you’d enjoy playing with. Even those good players might receive a few player feedback reports each month and that is OK. Xbox Live is looking to identify players that are repeatedly disruptive on Xbox Live. We’ll identify those players with a lower reputation score and in the worse cases they will earn the “avoid me” reputation. Looking at someone’s gamer card you’ll be able to quickly see their reputation.

Smart Match sees their Xbox Live rep too and when a person’s social reputation gets low enough the service will only match those low reputation players with similar low reputation players. This gives them the benefit of playing with people just like them. Ultimately we want to help encourage good behavior between strangers. By the way, before a user ends up at this extremely low reputation level we will have sent many different alerts to the user reminding how their social gaming conduct is affecting lots of other gamers. The chart includes examples of the reputation score that will be seen in the gamercard.

This reputation system will evolve as we track the feedback we get from actual players and titles, plus add more consequences for bad apples that we want to stop #$%^ crunching on corn chips in your ear. All you need to do is block or report players that are abusive, cheat, or causing various amounts of non-fun mayhem and their social reputation will reflect that. We’ll keep the good friendly players together with other good friendly people, and keep a seat for the bad apples in their own special place. Our team and I built this for all of you and we hope you like it!

while lets try to clear up something here .MS stated that sell your games will be up to third party publisher and you well be able to sale and trade all of there first party games.second you dont have to check in to use you xbox one every 24 hours only when you want to play games and im sure that youll be playing games online because you dont spend $60 for gold for no reason.yea its a $100 more for the kinect. fine alot of people dont want the kinect but is could be beneficial, your wife,kids, parents grandparent could use this if they really dont no what there doing but want to be involved in what your doing and im positive that core games wont end up being like ghost recon future solider lol

well it said you can sign in with your cell phone so im guessing you log into their website and that is consider connected dont quote on it that just what I read how it gonna work you would have to ask them

You do know that you have to pay to have tethering service on your phone, right? Unless your rooted. Also, if you are rooted and don’t have that feature and your in the US, they can see that you are using that feature that you don’t have and they will charge you for it. Is it really worth making your cellphone bill higher just to check-in every 24 hours?

Right, very clear! MS has built an infrastructure on the request of it’s publishing partners for them to be able to block the use of used games, yes got it! I use my xbox to play game so yes, there is in fact a 24 hours check in system, got it! Yes, I do play games online and when I do that the online is by choice. I can currently choose to take my console off line and play single player games all I want for as long as the system functions, so I got it, very clear that they are taking that away from me. Kinect stinks and they’re forcing it down my throat ,got it, very clear thank you! I can’t lend a game to a friend or simply give one away without having permission to do so from Microsoft, very clear. Got it!

I don’t hate Microsoft, I love my 360 and I’m not in need of education as to what they are dong, it’s clear that game ownership has been removed from the next gen Xbox console.

Now I’ve got to decide if I”m down with what they are doing and I”m just not sure.

Sony has confirmed that the digital rights management of PlayStation 4 software will be up to third-party publishers. Speaking on GTTV, Sony’s Jack Tretton stated, “The DRM decision for third-party games will be up to publishers.”

SMH. How about not picking bits and pieces of the article. What was stated is that it’s up to the publishers to apply DRM policies to their games, meaning they have the right to do what is already happening on the PS3/360 right now with online passes. Online passes is a sort of DRM for games. You are blocked from accessing certain parts of the game.

I would rather pay for an online pass which can run from $10-$15 maybe even more if the publisher wants to, then pay almost full retail price and only be able to give away once, with my permission.

well you can after flapping your arms around for an hour or shouting at the machine hoping kinect understands what you wanted… then 2 button presses on the controller and an hour of kinect gimmick smacks you in the face as the joke it is

It sure does, filled with complete stupidity. The stupidity where people don’t see both sides of the story and do what one person says to do, therefore being mindless sheep. Yup, they are both one in the same.

how about if it is so great go play it and stop telling us how great you think it is and how we cant say how bad we think it is. if it was so great youd be playing something , go get your acheievement for today and let the adults talk.

If we as just one person could think of that idea wouldnt you think a whole team of money hungry suits could think of it also. Your type is whats wrong with the world. Cant think pass the idea of yourself to even fathom the thought that there might be something going on behind our backs. Long live mother earth not mother government.

The only similarities I see are the folks that latch on to paranoid half-truths and base their opinions on emotional reactions rather than factual reality. Otherwise, there are no similarities whatsoever. But feel free to confuse private policy with constitutional rights if that’s what makes you feel good.

Kinect stuff is completely optional, and you have the ability to turn all of the kinect functions off if you want.

The thing i dont think microsoft has gotten out there is the benefits and reasons of the online system.

Microsoft keeps a second copy of all your games in the cloud so that you can play them from anywhere. Now if you trade in a game, and didnt have to connect in some form. You could potentially just keep playing that game even though you have sold it, because it runs from the drive.

Now some of the benefits as ive seen them.

You can access you entire library from any console.
Your live account and library are shared to anyone who uses the same console.
You can designate up to 10 “Family” members *not entirely stated how this works* that can access your entire library of games from their consoles.

Just way too much to get excited about. Everything I hear makes me want to hurry and get my hands on it and just fiddle with everything. Since when I pop-in my Day One edition I’ll pop an achievement (I have a streak for an achievement-a-day) I can just screw around ALL night. GAH! I love new stuff!

so you mom doesnt even like you enough to make you cookies from scratch, see thats the differnence between mommies and girlfriends, girlfriends dont get tired of you because they actually want you around because you do things for them and not just yourself all the time. its sad you have to eat mass produced cookies as opposed to me who is eating a warm freash baked one right now. im sorry your such a loser but there is hope, just consider other people for a change.

sorry MS but you have jumped the shark and this thing is now in decline. you killed off every successful product at some point, the only thing left is office, and the rental “365” will soon be seen for what it is.

so did nintendos wii-u it takes more than a few buyers to make a successful machine. you seem to think the world is the same as what you see in the mirror, but the world isnt a grinning idiot like you think

I listened to an interview with Chad and Michael on Major’s E3 segment, and he asked them both that very question. They said that they’ve developed a system that would prevent what they called “mafias” from ganging up on an individual just to trash their reputation. The algorithm looks at whether or not you’ve actually played with the people giving you negative feedback, plus it looks at your own reputation compared to those leaving negative feedback against you. There was more to it than that, but that’s all I can remember off the top of my head. At any rate, it sounds like they’re very aware of the possibility you mentioned.

That sounds a bit better. I have negative feedback in the current system and I know which games it has came from. It’s games were say I have picked up the sniper first in halo then get team killed. Then I boot them. After which a stream of nonsense voice and text messages and negative feedback. If these situations happened in the new system, it would be very unfair for it to affect who you get ranked with. I have also played games were in have been accused of cheating/hacking because I bet them. I am sure this has lead to negative feedback. It would be hugely unfair to receive negative feedback for winning games.

Well this is a good example of what Microsoft can do. And it’s welcome. But unfortunately there are many things that Microsoft did wrong in the last few years and
especially what it wants to do with Xbox One, regarding ownership of games,
always online, privacy, price, etc…

MajorNelson , XBOX ONE games look like amazing , but please , change the policy , the restrictions ,drm ,Always ON , Kinect requierd for RUN , account , REGION LOCKED …..XBOX ONE and Microsoft will CRASH if they use these restrictions and WIN if they cancel ….

You do know that modded consoles still function online right and I dont care if they play burnt games I just dont want my account info stolen besides with Xbox One you dont even need the disc to play your game and you install and your done so knowing that what is preventing a user from buying a game used have no fee attached to it install it take it back within 30 days then buy another game do the same process over and over no one will profit if that happens.

actually they don’t have the same used game stance at all. only select retailers can you sell your game back. You also can’t loan your game to a friend outside your family. Xbox1’s is DRM’d, Sony’s is not, after that fact yes the publishers can choose to shoot themselves in their foot and implement their own.

Destructoid full of stupid… it’s all on the publishers… they can do it however they want and there is no reason for them not to port over the whole system of requiring online checks… Ubisoft and EA already use this on some of their games on PC

Lawl, i like this guy how he is defending a already dead console. My prediction is.. Xbox Live loses at least 25 Million members to PS4 ( Because smart people like rights ).. And Xbox Live will look like a ghost town on many games.

Online passes are something they can use… but they can just use the same restrictions… or more(including no used games) on the PS4. Sony isn’t enabling this through their system, but they are not disallowing it

i think the ability to play offline and the lending of games begs to differ. You can only lend your game once on xbox one then it can no longer be borrowed by anyone else. sony have confirmed it remains the same as current gen when it comes to the lending and reselling of games.

here is the bottom line… Microsoft doesn’t care about you think you want, what they are betting on is that you don’t know you want something… they are gambling and the gamble has the support of the three largest publishers in the world

Dude I listened to a podcast last night on ign and they were with the president of Sony. It’s an hour long.

Straight from his mouth. Games will work EXACTLY how they do now on current gen. Drm only applies to online passes or games like mmo’s. Ign was very specific with their questions even comparing titles like mass effect for examples. You are WRONG!

Wow, i guess no one pays attention to anything at E3… SONY CEO has said… ” PS4 Third-Party Publisher Used game policy is no different from the PS3 used game policy”. So, if they do want a DRM thing for used games… it’s Online passes for Used games, that’s all.

You know i keep seeing this statement, and i dont believe it means what you believe it does. Yes Sony has stated that they will leave things to the Publishers likely by way of online passes. Now is it possible that Publisher could extend that online pass beyond just multiplayer and out to single player? Yeah its possible. Is it likely? I doubt it.

blu ray was and still is the greatest format for hd content and high capacity storage, sony is moving forward they are using digital media as well but they realise not everyone wants this not to mention the fact most people dont have the infrastructure to cope with such a transition. tell me how exactly how xbox one’s policies are moving forward?

Microsoft made a platform that Publishers and Developers can have FAITH protects their interests……..which in turn……..makes them more inclined to make games for that prospective platform.

Should publishers decide to enforce DRM on the PS4….they will have to CUSTOM BUILD whatever functionality that is to enforce it themselves…essentially taking on extra work from a development standpoint perhaps and ALSO taking majority of the heat for making it DRM. (see Sim City disaster and who caught the blame….)

In a very veiled way….the system level BUILT IN DRM functionality and check in of Xbox One may benefit gamers, because it courts Developers and Publishers…….

Online Passes ARE DRM ! It’s D igital R ights M anagement. It’s digitally managing if you can play it or not. You fools so blindly jump on whatever the HOT TOPIC is…and vomit so much misiformation, it’s frightening sometimes.

I wonder how self-publishing did for “back scratcher pro” on MICROSOFTS INDIE GAMES MARKET they just did for the past 8 years………come on bro…….they aren’t doing this stuff for no reason and out of nowhere.

Self-publishing, just made a ground for TONS O’ TURDS, and a few gems. How about they just find the gems then publish them or a publisher finds the gems and publishes them.

It’s a fine-tooth comb courtesy of publishers……..can’t be too mad at that honestly. Pretty sure “Below” that showed at E3 was an indie game that looks great coming up…..for Xbox One…….pretty sure Max: The curse of brotherhood is from Press Play (indie studio)………coming to 360…..looks great…..

I hear you, we want choice, not restriction….i understand and I feel you. But if you SERIOUSLY think that Publishers are like “hey man….we aren’t going to enforce optional DRM because we’re nice guys”……..i wouldn’t hold your breath. LMAO……there are business benefits, that no matter what you want, for what game pubs and devs have provided FOR YEARS, they realize….they are giving a whollllle lot more than they are getting.

One way or another, Pubs will get to the extra money. $10 online pass blockout was yesterdays trick…..when they figure out plan 2….i hope you aren’t too mad on your PS4….they’ll find you no matter the system bro. lol

You’re absolutely correct. Game systems are about games, and games are made by developers. Sony has essentially decided to ignore some of the larger concerns that developers have (namely piracy and lost profits from rentals and used games). Microsoft has found a way to try and reign in rampant piracy, and to provide a rental system that benefits developers as well as consumers (think Netflix for video games).

Sony is thinking short-term; Microsoft is moving the Xbox into the same territory as some of the most successful and beneficial online businesses out there (Netflix and iTunes). It will work well for them, and will work well for us.

I love gaming as much as I love music, but I do not miss driving to the music store when the new releases come out on Tuesday. I do not miss paying full price for an album, and only listening to one or two songs. And I do not miss owning physical copies of most CDs. When there’s an album I want to own as a collector, I’ll buy it. Otherwise, AACs and MP3s are just fine.

I see the same future for gaming, and I’ll happily embrace it. Loss of rights? I don’t think so. When it comes to intellectual properties, I want to support the creator so they’ll create more. A policy that does that is beneficial to me, because I’ll play more. It’s not spin; it’s common sense.

So let me take your two examples and throw them back at you. First off: You don’t own anything on netflix. Its a rental system. Nothing there is yours. So unless you are okay with the notion of none of your games being yours, then the Netflix example falls flat on its face. Second: iTunes. I only wish that the XBOne was like iTunes…..allow me to explain.
1. iTunes no longer has drm on its music
2. I can burn an iTunes disc and give it to anyone i want.
3. When my internet stops working, as long as i have my songs downloaded they still work.
4. iTunes checks back to Apple to see if there are software updates….thats it. It doesnt stop any of its functions, outside of the online components, when the internet is gone.
So sorry bud, your examples just don’t fit. Apple learned on the whole DRM front. They decided to strip out the DRM, they used cloud in a creative way, without making it restrictive, beyond the number of systems i can use.
So yeah i would hope MS apes Apple in that regard, as of now its a no go.

Only difference being….Apple’s DRM or “online check” or songs being locked into their system didn’t have ANY benefits. There are benefits to being in a guaranteed online user base………the developer can do many things from an architectural standpoint that they couldn’t do if they were uncertain about what the end user would have GUARANTEED.

ala: look at Forza 5’s A.I. system….if the developer doesn’t know if you are going to have an online system in place….they may not even attempt that development structure or try new things in that space

Granted that Forza 5 implimentation is minimal at best of an example…but there are BENEFITS to this system, that people don’t want to see, because they only stare at the negatives.

And again the people trying to defend this seem to neglect that they can accomplish this without the restrictions. To use your Forza example….Forza is one of if not the most played online racing SIM on consoles. They know that there is a userbase there. Do you believe they couldnt accomplish the same Drivatar system without MS forcing everyone to check in online everyday?? Come on man. Is the drivatar system a benefit? Yes. Can it be accomplished without the checkin restriction? Yes. That makes it a restriction and a negative.
There is not one thing that MS is doing that they could not accomplish without the restrictions. Not one, period. If there is please tell me because I don’t see a single example.

True indeed. To be fair to me and so you have an understanding: I’m standing on the side of the consumer………yesterday i traded my Xbox 360 for a PS3…..because just out of my own consumer responsibility…..i feel obligated to stand up for the people on their side…..so i’ll likely be getting a PS4….

however…….i still don’t really see a BIG problem with MS and Publishers protecting their property and in some cases providing additional benefits (ala development decisions to give creators more freedoms based on assumptions THEY can make about the end user)…..

but….i get this all from a consumer standpoint…….just as a normal dude tho…..i guess what their doing doesn’t really bother me per say.

The same people that say that, said the PS4 would have the same policies as the Xbox One. They said
“If Microsoft is doing it, EA is forcing it, then Sony is doing it too! Just wait!”
Well that didn’t happen.

Even if Publishers find a way to put up their own servers for online checks, we still have the choice to skip those games.

The Publishers have the choice to do that.
And we have the choice to not buy those certain games.

Mercedes doesn’t tell me I can’t lend my car to people outside my family list or people I’ve been friends with for less than 30 days. I bought it. It’s mine. Copyright and DRM is quite possibly the 2nd most F***ed up thing right now. You buy it – it’s yours to do what you want with it. <- period

lmao….why is it I can’t defend the idea of what MS is doing…or i’m working for them???? That’s how groupthink works…….”think like us…or your an outcast”. lol!

All I’m saying is, I don’t think i’m ENTIRELY against protecting the interests of these companies that MAKE the games that I spend several YEARS playing. I think it makes sense.

And truthfully the game DOESN’T really lose its useability like a car………so the car comparison is like….apples to rocks…….not even remotely 1:1 comparison….your car can break down and not drive 2 miles because of a bad tranmission…….your game code STILL works….regardless how old the roster.

The base argument is….”I bought-it…it is now MY property…the developer has made their intended price-point on the sale…I gave you money for a product…I held-up my end of the bargain…it is MINE now…if I’m not doing anything illegal with it, who are YOU to say what happens to it now? I can share, trade-in, or gift it to someone else.”
This is what gets everybody’s panties into a knot.
(…this is referring to a disc-based game)

because your defense makes absolutely no sense – unless you work for the company or a related position.

Here’s the deal. When we had cassette tapes, there was nothing to prevent you from making a copy or a mix tape and giving it to your friend. Then cd’s came along and people did the same thing. Was this ever a big deal? NO.

THEN companies figured out, if they could stop this from happening, they could make more money. So they came up with this BS logic that we were stealing if we shared it and so they came up with this DRM bullshit for one reason – TO MAKE MORE MONEY.

I am all for companies getting paid for their hard work. But greed will cause a company to lose it’s supporters and drive it into the ground.

Right now, digital media is one of the only things in this world where the creator thinks for some reason that they can regulate how you use it all in the name of copyright or DRM. It’s greed, plain and simple. I BOUGHT IT – I CAN DO WHATEVER THE HELL I WANT WITH IT.

It’s no different than Mcdonalds telling you that you can’t give your burger to your friend. Or LG saying you can’t have people over to watch the Pay Per View. Or Mercedes, Nike – WHOEVER – trying to tell you what you are and not allowed ot do with something you purchased.

It’s wrong. and if you can’t see that, or can’t agree with that, then you’re just as greedy which means you work for someone doing the same exact thing

also, your argument of depreciating value doesn’t work. If I buy a painting or collectible or anything of increasing value, can that artist, sculptor, creator tell me what I am or am not allowed to do with it?? No.

The only thing in the world where people try to regulate what you’re allowed to do with something is digital assets. It should be against the law.

Have you seen what Kinect can do?!?! It’s worse than the DRM, Kinect is just a spy. Kinect is always listening and watching… as soon as you go online the information (Sound & Video) will be gone to Micro$oft!

really, did he really mean that, the guy thats ment to be promoting ment to be supporting the new xbox say something so confesending and arrguant.

a lot of people dont have the internet and that was his reply, that is just a slap in the face to everyone.

the pros and cons of xbox one

PROS:-

the games coming out are good

erm thats it

CONS:-

price

DRM

console will NOT work without kinect

kinect

unable to play pre-owned games without paying a premium from the publishers

inability to play offline for more than 24hours, i regularly go on metal summer ((i follow heavy metal bands and goto a lot of gigs)) where i cannot get on the internet and my xbox360 allows me to play games through the day.

invasive privicy issues

now i am a total xbox fan freak but this time round with the entire mess around drm, price, pre-owned restrictions and the forcing of kinect has really really soured me to xbone.

the “consumer surveys” that was said to have been done, well us being microsoft customers require the evidence to these surveys.

now consumer also means the development game companys and publishers and since a majority of the publishers own all the game developers means it was a REALLY small base, but yet again the paying consumer means jack to microsoft as were all as they said in no uncertain terms “unloyal entitled ignoramises”, oh that last statement is the limens terms.

windows 8 was a disaster in every sense, saying desktop pc’s needed a tablet interface, who ever thought of that idea needs to be fired, just as the same person who thought full on DRM and to change the ownership rules of a physical item from “owner” to “loaned on license”.

with all this DRM issues the price of games should literly be halfed, if the games go up in price then there lies the issue, this means microsoft are monopolising the games industry by restricting the ability for people to loan, borrow or sell there games at any time, and under the consumer rights in the uk

a majority of those laws were updated because of microsofts arrogance and ignorance of the consumer rights and as such microsoft are now fully liable for refunds on xbox games as they have changed the EULA for games for the xbox one.

with the DRM microsoft has the ability to remove the game from your ownership at there whim for ANY REASON, because it uses an internet connection to verify the game as it is installed means it is no longer a physical item but now a digital item as the disk is now no longer required.

with the invasive DRM and the invasive privicy issues and with the transmission of personal data to outside the uk to be kept and stored on american servers is a clear breech of law and can be acted apon by the uk goverment as a whole.

microsoft, you really need to get yourself ready for a TON of trouble.

Wow, I’ve spent thousands on Microsoft consoles, accessories and software but somehow I’m disloyal If I don’t just open wide and drink the punch. Really classy Microcrap! I’ve been on Xbox Live for 10 years now, I don’t think there is an issue with my brand loyalty.

You guys have “reputation” currently in place on Xbox 360. It doesn’t work. Why is this being brought-out and showcased like some new, cool feature? How about you address your consumers, Larry? You’ve got the biggest outcry I’ve ever witnessed in gaming…and you’re posting flow-charts on new ‘social reputation’ structure?! Put some duct-tape over Don Mattrick’s mouth and have somebody that’s interested in SAVING the Xbox One address your customer base. You’re friggin’ embarrassing me.

In all the history of Microsoft I dont think they have ever apologized for anything they have done, they just would rather pass the blame onto something else and try again but hide the changes in something new and different.

These statements are the only thing that could possibly save Microsoft from a horrible, humiliating, market-changing defeat in the next gen.
They will linger for couple of years…like a diseased person on life-support…toothless…clumps of hair missing…until they finally expire…a handful of people crying in the corner.
I STILL can’t believe you put yourselves in this situation! You could’ve continued console dominance for the next decade… But I guess 3rd place behind the (gag) Wii U is good enough for ya, huh?

I’m not defending it but these policies show that MS is interested in turning a console into a service where eventually the only form of getting games will be to download them, they want a full blown app store model, Phil Harrison has already likened the digitial model akin to IOS saying that system is without physicial media and works so why wont this, he is BLIND to the fact that most ios games and apps cost approx 99p- £5 and most 5-6 month old game on demand games are £49, more than the disc even to buy new in some cases!

Honestly, with all this cloud nonsense going on in the background I can see them trying to turn their next version of windows into a proprietary “service” that is cloud based and an app store as you only means of getting apps or what they should be called, Programs. the day that happens is the true death of the Pc IMO and would cause an even bigger uproar than now